Facts you didn’t know about food origins

As food is an essential part of our existence, we tend to see it every day. When we’re eating our meals, enjoying a little snack or treat, it’s not often that we really think about the origins of food, or why we ever thought to start eating certain foods.

In this Callthecaterer myth busting special, I’ll be debunking three common misconceptions about food, as well as exposing some fun and interesting facts along the way. I’ll take you through the day-to-day food philosophy of food, and hopefully shed some light on the meals we eat.

French Fries aren’t actually French

First up, it our nations favourite: the chip, or French Fries as we also know them as. One of the most popular accompaniments to our meat and veg, chips are one of Britain’s favourite foods. It’s quite easy to break down the word ‘chip’ and track the history of it. A chip would’ve gotten it’s name from the chipping motion we perform when cutting a thin slice of potato. The result is a ‘chip off the block’ or more affectionately: a chip!

French fries however are a sort of sub-category of the chip, characterised by their very thin cut and often deep fried for flavour. We Brits immediately loved the French Fry because of it’s easy preparation and crispy, salty taste. So should we turn around and thank the French for this wonderful invention? Surely with a name like French Fries there is only one responsible nation? Unfortunately there is not.

The French Fry is in fact not French, much to the shock of many. They are in fact Belgian. In a recent discovery – and much debate between the two rivalling countries – it was found that the Belgians invented the ‘French’ Fries, not the French. So how did they come about? Well there are a lot of folklore tales surrounding this story, but the most popular is actually quite a funny one! It says that the Belgians used to fry tiny fish to sell as a delicacy and a treat, but when times were tough or the demand was high, they’d run out of these fish and have a problem. Still wanting to make money, these markets would fry small slices of potatoes shaped like fish instead, leading to the birth of the Fry.

Why soft drinks are called soft drinks.

‘Pop’, ‘fizzy drinks’ or even ‘soda’ if you’re from across the pond. Carbonated drinks go by many different names, and there’s not one uniform label we can all agree to universally tie it down to – saying ‘carbonated’ is a bit longwinded and just won’t cut it, in case you didn’t realise!

When carbonated drinks started to really take off, advertising and marketing became a key driving method to get the new fangled products out there. It was hard for big brands to produce worldwide ads because of the labelling differences of the naming conventions. And so it was out of all this confusion that a uniform label came about: ‘soft drinks’. Yes that’s right, we can blame the marketers and the advertisers for labelling our beloved fizzy pop and soda, ‘soft drinks.’

So it doesn’t sound clever or funny, but yet it’s managed to stick and hold true to this day, I guess that’s why we call them advertisers then!

Think about your food

So the next time you sit down to eat your breakfast, lunch or tea, have a look at what it is you’re eating, and think about how we go to the point of actually eating this. Browse the internet for fun facts about it, you never know, you might learn something new!